Social Bullying!
Social bullying is deliberate, repetitive and aggressive social behaviour intended to hurt others. This type of behavior generally includes verbal abuse, gossip or other actions that cause mental and emotional harm and social isolation for the victim. Schools, sports activities, colleges, domestic and work situations and neighborhoods are some of the places in which social bullying occurs.
The goal of social bullying is to belittle and harm another individual or group. In middle school, for example, bullying might take the shape of teasing unpopular children. Ridiculing another child’s clothes, making fun of the way he speaks and mocking his academic achievements or his race or culture are examples of behaviors that a social bully might exhibit to gain power over another child.
Social bullying carries into adulthood in some cases. Bullying behaviors can be found among family members, in work situations, in college social groups and in neighborhood activities. Socially sabotaging others by spreading rumors, constantly telling them what to do and any other behaviors that intentionally cause shame and humiliation and exert control over others can be considered examples of social bullying.
Social bullying can have terrible consequences on the bullied kids. They often have to choose between being bullied or becoming a bad kid. To get their social status up, kids are most of the time willing to do anything. First of all, they will probably totally change their attitude to be like other more popular kids. To do so, they may need to stop focusing on studying and their grades can drop from good to horrible. When the kid getting bullied finally is accepted in the group of kids that rejected him, he or she often stops hanging out with his real friends and starts to socially bully them to maintain their status in the group. This is a viscous circle of social bullying and often is how otherwise socially deprived kids attain and maintain their status. All this at the expense of others thereby turning the school or even neighbourhood class structure similar to apartheid. Good kids become bad as a result of wanting to be accepted.
The changes we need to accomplish to remove this circle of status within the schools and neighbourhoods are simple. Kids need to understand that they are special and that they don't need to change to have others like them. I believe that this requires adult role models that tell them that they don't need to change to be liked. Its those roll models that can place kids in situations where others like them for what they are. For example a reclusive school kid may enjoy playing sports; so they should be on a community team to develop their skills and confidence.
The goal of social bullying is to belittle and harm another individual or group. In middle school, for example, bullying might take the shape of teasing unpopular children. Ridiculing another child’s clothes, making fun of the way he speaks and mocking his academic achievements or his race or culture are examples of behaviors that a social bully might exhibit to gain power over another child.
Social bullying carries into adulthood in some cases. Bullying behaviors can be found among family members, in work situations, in college social groups and in neighborhood activities. Socially sabotaging others by spreading rumors, constantly telling them what to do and any other behaviors that intentionally cause shame and humiliation and exert control over others can be considered examples of social bullying.
Social bullying can have terrible consequences on the bullied kids. They often have to choose between being bullied or becoming a bad kid. To get their social status up, kids are most of the time willing to do anything. First of all, they will probably totally change their attitude to be like other more popular kids. To do so, they may need to stop focusing on studying and their grades can drop from good to horrible. When the kid getting bullied finally is accepted in the group of kids that rejected him, he or she often stops hanging out with his real friends and starts to socially bully them to maintain their status in the group. This is a viscous circle of social bullying and often is how otherwise socially deprived kids attain and maintain their status. All this at the expense of others thereby turning the school or even neighbourhood class structure similar to apartheid. Good kids become bad as a result of wanting to be accepted.
The changes we need to accomplish to remove this circle of status within the schools and neighbourhoods are simple. Kids need to understand that they are special and that they don't need to change to have others like them. I believe that this requires adult role models that tell them that they don't need to change to be liked. Its those roll models that can place kids in situations where others like them for what they are. For example a reclusive school kid may enjoy playing sports; so they should be on a community team to develop their skills and confidence.